Mercury Music Nominee: Sweet Billy Pilgrim

22 July 2009

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It is with great pleasure that we announce today that the critically acclaimed British band Sweet Billy Pilgrim have been nominated for the hugely respected Mercury Music Prize for their stunning album ‘Twice Born Men’.

The music of Sweet Billy Pilgrim is first and foremost, staggeringly beautiful.  But it’s a shy beauty – a lingering ambience and a distant clicking in the night, church windows built from littered glass, love songs that look to the day when even the children are forgotten.

Strangers tell you their heartbreaks. Fountains toss back their coins.  And just when you start to feel sceptical, in shambles singer Tim Elsenburg – shaggy and dour, wringing joy from his melodies with a bashful croak and a glorious croon

The trio of Tim Elsenburg, Anthony Bishop (bass, banjo), and Alistair Hamer (drums) strikes a balance between the loops and textures wrung from laptops, and the sharp tones of a banjo.   Bass clarinet and crisp guitar bring a ramshackle glory to the opening single, "Truth Only Smiles”; a tuned dishwasher introduces the treacherous love of "Kalypso."

Often compared to Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Talk Talk or Elbow, Sweet Billy Pilgrim achieve a sublime balance between their hooks and their moods, their ambitions and their humility, but the music of Sweet Billy Pilgrim is first and foremost, staggeringly beautiful.

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison

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